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How to Do Plastic Wrap Painting with Watercolors

by Jean Van't Hul
March 6, 2024
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Geometric watercolor art is beautiful and easy to make with plastic wrap painting. Try this tutorial with fun doodle variations.

Updated April 2024

This geometric watercolor art is an activity we first tried years ago. We’ve done it many times of the years, and always love the way our paintings turn out.

This is also a really cool way to make constellations and has become a favorite space art project.

plastic wrap painting pinterest
Photo by Anna Harpe

It’s very simple: you paint with watercolors and then place scrunched up plastic wrap on the wet paint. The plastic wrap makes the paint dry in really cool geometric designs. You can extend the activity by doodling on and tracing the angled lines with metallic Sharpies or chalk markers.

Plastic Wrap Painting

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MATERIALS

Time needed: 1 hour

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Paint with watercolors

    You’ll want to add lots of watercolor paint to your paper. The more wet watercolor paint there is, the better.

    watercolors on paper

  2. Add Saran Wrap

    Scrunch up some plastic wrap and apply it to the wet watercolor painting right away.

    watercolor with saran wrap

    Or, as our kids like to do, apply a flat piece of plastic wrap then scrunch it up directly on the paper.

    watercolor with saran wrap (1)

  3. Let dry then remove plastic wrap

    Set the paintings aside to dry completely. Then lift the plastic wrap to reveal your new geometric watercolor art!
    Some work better than others, so make a bunch.

    watercolors with plastic wrap

  4. Draw geometric designs

    After making dozens of geometric watercolor art, we got out the pens and markers and doodled constellations on the paint.

    geometric constellations

We love how these paintings look! We especially like the effect of the silver metallic Sharpies and the chalk markers.

More Fun Watercolor Ideas to Try

Pin It for Later

plastic wrap painting pin
How to Do Plastic Wrap Painting with Watercolors How to Do Plastic Wrap Painting with Watercolors

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